This is probably not easy to put together but our New Year's tradition is to take tiny horse shoes made of some metal that melts, melt them over a fire (some do it over a hob) and then pour it to a bucket of cold water. The resulting shape is used to predict what the year will be like. The whole thing is probably too difficult/dangerous but even the resulting lump of metal might be interesting? It's sometimes done with sugar too as the metal contains lead.

I want to do this myself, this year! It is easy enough, since I already melt metal on a regular basis and I think it will be fun. No kids will be around, so few safety concerns.

We used to do it as children and it was a lot of fun, I don't think that we were that much concerned with safety though we were careful and there was always an adult supervising us. I haven't done it in years, after I stopped spending New Years at a place with an open fireplace, it's not the same on a stove.

Great ideas! Hershey kisses and brooms are certainly in. I am going to look for a peppermint pig locally. If I can't find one, would marzipan do?

I think I am going to vary the legume in each basket (lentil, black eyed peas, beans).

A marzipan pig would be perfect. I hadn't heard about peppermint pigs before but giving out ones made of marzipan is a similar German New Year's tradition, as explained here: http://www.ehow.com/about_5091135_marzipan-pig.html. I used to make pigs to distribute but, unfortunately, almost none of my friends and family like marzipan.

Logged

I'm the kid who has this habit of dreamingSometimes gets me in trouble tooBut the truth is I could no more stop dreamingThan I could make them all come true.

If the people who will receive your baskets would appreciate the joke and, if you can find them, 'Gelt Scheisters' might be a possibility.

These are a somewhat vulgar version of the 'Goose that lays the golden egg'. They're little marzipan figures of a squatting boy with his pants down and a foil-wrapped chocolate coin in the appropriate place.

One year, I got one for my Mother and I never heard her laugh so loud or long in her life.

If the people who will receive your baskets would appreciate the joke and, if you can find them, 'Gelt Scheisters' might be a possibility.

These are a somewhat vulgar version of the 'Goose that lays the golden egg'. They're little marzipan figures of a squatting boy with his pants down and a foil-wrapped chocolate coin in the appropriate place.

One year, I got one for my Mother and I never heard her laugh so loud or long in her life.

A little background: There is a legend (apparently going back to the Middle Ages) that the people of Sicily prayed to St. Joseph to end a famine there. Supposedly it then began to rain on March 19, St. Joseph's feast day. An alternative version says that the famine ended because of a bounty of fava beans, a crop which grows even when others fail.

The grateful Sicilians began a tradition of thanks to St. Joseph on his feast day by creating altars of food to be given away. Sicilian immigrants brought this tradition of the St. Joseph's altar to New Orleans, where families celebrate it yearly, both in churches as well as in private homes. The altars are amazing and beautiful accumulations of food -- well worth seeing, if you're ever in New Orleans on March 19. /bg

One of the things traditionally given away to everyone who visits a St. Joseph's altar is the "lucky bean" (a dried fava bean). Many New Orleanians carry them. (I did, when I lived there.) A "lucky bean" would be an easy (and historical!) addition to your basket.